An overview of the 2022 State Senate Primaries

It may be the middle of summer, but there is a lot going on in Massachusetts state legislature campaigns. This post spends some time looking at redistricting, specifically the new majority minority state senate districts, and then at each of the contested state senate primaries.

New majority minority districts

The Massachusetts State Senate lines have been redrawn by the legislature after the 2020 Census as required by the constitution. Redistricting established two new majority minority districts.

The First Essex State Senate District—one of the new majority districts—contains all of Lawrence, all of Methuen, and about 5 precincts of Haverhill. The previous lines of the district left out Lawrence and included a large number of largely white communities. The new lines result in a voting age population that is 36% White, 56% Hispanic, 10% Black, and 3% Asian. The First Essex incumbent, Diana DiZoglio (D—Methuen), is running for Auditor, leaving an open race for a competitive field of candidates from Lawrence and Methuen (see the First Essex primary overview below).

Figure 1: First Essex State Senate District

The other newly created majority minority is the Middlesex and Suffolk District with incumbent Sal DiDomenico (D—Everett). Redistricting has added diverse sections of Cambridgeport and East Cambridge, while removing parts of Boston’s West End, Allston, and Brighton neighborhoods. The district ends up with a demographic mix of 46% White, 24% Hispanic, 12% Black, and 15% Asian. DiDomenico does not have primary or general election challenger.

Figure 2: Middlesex and Suffolk State Senate District

The other majority minority State Senate districts are the Springfield-based Hampden district of Adam Gomez (D—Springfield), the Boston-based Second Suffolk district of Sonia Change-Diaz (D—Boston) who ran an unsuccessful campaign for Governor, and the Second Plymouth and Norfolk district with incumbent Senator Michael Brady (D—Brockton).

The full State Senate map is given here with dashed lines for previous State Senate district lines and some demographics (partisan lean, etc.).

Figure 3: MA State Senate Districts (2022)

State Senate Primary Overview

There are ten State Senate districts with contested primaries. There are three Democratic incumbents with primary challengers—Joan Lovely (D—Salem), Walter Timility (D—Milton), Michael Brady (D-Brockton)—and one Republican with a primary challenge, Patrick O’Connor (R-Weymouth).

There are five open seats with four having just a Democratic primary, and one seat—Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester—with both a Democratic and Republican primary.

District	PVI	inc_status	Incumbent	primaries
Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire	D+18	No_Incumbent	(Adam Hinds—Pittsfield)	D
Hampden and Hampshire	D+6	Dem_Incumbent	John C. Velis—Westfield
Hampden	D+22	Dem_Incumbent	Adam Gomez—Springfield
Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester	D+4	No_Incumbent	(Eric Lesser—Longmeadow)	D,R
Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester	D+23	Dem_Incumbent	Jo Comerford—Florence
Worcester and Hampshire	EVEN	Dem_Incumbent	Anne M. Gobi—Spencer
Worcester and Hampden	R+2	GOP_Incumbent	Ryan C. Fattman—Sutton
Second Worcester	D+11	Dem_Incumbent	Michael O. Moore—Millbury
First Worcester	D+17	No_Incumbent	(Harriette L. Chandler—Worcester)	D
Worcester and Middlesex	D+8	Dem_Incumbent	John C. Cronin—Lunenburg
First Middlesex	D+8	Dem_Incumbent	Edward J. Kennedy Jr.—Lowell
Middlesex and Worcester	D+20	Dem_Incumbent	James B. Eldridge—Acton
Middlesex and Norfolk	D+20	Dem_Incumbent	Karen E. Spilka—Ashland
Norfolk, Worcester and Middlesex	D+12	Dem_Incumbent	Rebecca L. Rausch—Needham
Third Middlesex	D+20	Dem_Incumbent	Michael J. Barrett—Lexington
Fourth Middlesex	D+16	Dem_Incumbent	Cindy F. Friedman—Arlington
Norfolk and Middlesex	D+32	Dem_Incumbent	Cynthia Stone Creem—Newton
Norfolk and Suffolk	D+18	Dem_Incumbent	Michael F. Rush—West Roxbury
First Essex	D+15	No_Incumbent	(Diana DiZoglio—Methuen)	D
Second Essex and Middlesex	D+6	Dem_Incumbent	Barry R. Finegold—Andover
First Essex and Middlesex	D+10	GOP_Incumbent	Bruce E. Tarr—Gloucester
Second Essex	D+12	Dem_Incumbent	Joan B. Lovely—Salem	D
Fifth Middlesex	D+16	Dem_Incumbent	Jason M. Lewis—Winchester
Third Essex	D+13	Dem_Incumbent	Brendan P. Crighton—Lynn
Third Suffolk	D+21	Dem_Incumbent	Lydia Marie Edwards—Boston
Middlesex and Suffolk	D+32	Dem_Incumbent	Sal N. DiDomenico—Everett
Second Middlesex	D+32	Dem_Incumbent	Patricia D. Jehlen—Somerville
Suffolk and Middlesex	D+32	Dem_Incumbent	William N. Brownsberger—Belmont
Second Suffolk	D+42	No_Incumbent	(Sonia Chang-Diaz—Boston)	D
First Suffolk	D+30	Dem_Incumbent	Nicholas P. Collins—South Boston
First Plymouth and Norfolk	D+9	GOP_Incumbent	Patrick Michael O’Connor—Weymouth	R
Norfolk and Plymouth	D+9	Dem_Incumbent	John F. Keenan—Quincy
Norfolk, Plymouth and Bristol	D+11	Dem_Incumbent	Walter F. Timilty—Milton	D
Second Plymouth and Norfolk	D+14	Dem_Incumbent	Michael D. Brady—Brockton	D
Bristol and Norfolk	D+8	Dem_Incumbent	Paul R. Feeney—Foxborough
Third Bristol and Plymouth	R+1	Dem_Incumbent	Marc R. Pacheco—Taunton
First Bristol and Plymouth	D+1	Dem_Incumbent	Michael J. Rodrigues—Westport
Second Bristol and Plymouth	D+7	Dem_Incumbent	Mark C. Montigny—New Bedford
Plymouth and Barnstable	D+4	Dem_Incumbent	Susan Lynn Moran—Falmouth
Cape and Islands	D+12	Dem_Incumbent	Julian A. Cyr—Truro	R

Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire

Figure 4: Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire

District	cpf_id	Inc	Candidate	Party	city_town
Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire	15051	N	Paul W. Mark	D	Peru
Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire	18113	N	Huff Tyler Templeton, III	D	Williamstown
Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire	17691	N	Brendan M. Phair	U	Pittsfield

The newly created and enormous Berkshire, Hampden, Franklin and Hampshire district contains 57 cities and towns in Western Massachusetts. The incumbent of the existing and similarly named Berkshire, Hampshire, Franklin and Hampden district, Adam Hinds (D—Pittsfield) ran an unsuccessful campaign for Lieutenant Governor, leaving this district without an incumbent senator.

The Democratic primary will feature sitting State Representative Paul Mark (D—Peru) whose current Second Berkshire State Representative district is outlined in the map, and Williamstown small business manager and activist Huff Templeton III. Representative Mark will have a considerable advantage as almost a quarter of the Senate district’s Democratic primary voters will have seen him on the ballot, and likely will have voted for him in the past.

The D+18 Partisan Voter Index (PVI) will make the winner of the Democratic primary the prohibitive favorite in November’s general election against unenrolled candidate Brendan Phair of Pittsfield.

Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester

District	cpf_id	Inc	Candidate	Party	city_town
Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester	17987	N	Sydney R. Levin-Epstein	D	Longmeadow
Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester	17483	N	Jacob R. Oliveira	D	Ludlow
Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester	17963	N	John Harding	R	East Longmeadow
Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester	13637	N	William E. Johnson	R	Granby

The new Hampden, Hampshire and Worcester district is closely related to the previous First Hampden and Hampshire district currently held by Eric Lesser (D—Longmeadow) who is running for Lieutenant Governor. It is the only state senate seat to feature both a Democratic and Republican primary.

On the Democratic side, first term State Representative Jacob Oliveira (D—Ludlow) faces campaign strategist Sydney Levin-Epstein of Longmeadow. The map shows the overlap of the Oliveira-held Seventh Hampden State Rep district.

The two GOP candidates are John Harding of East Longmeadow, a former military office who says he has been called by God to run, and William Johnson, a business owner from Granby.

First Worcester

First Essex

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